2. Production
If you've done your planning, made your site map, and have a clear idea of exactly what you want to achieve then it's time, you can put it off no longer, you must get to grips with HTML, Hyper Text Markup Language , the code used to build internet pages, including the one you're reading right now.
But if you want to actually see some HTML go to the View menu at the top of your browser, and select Source. This will boot up a simple text program that will show you the HTML behind this page. But don't be afraid - this is a complicated page, using ASP, Java script and all sorts of whizzing toys. Your page need not be nearly so difficult! Here is a complete web page in HTML code,
<html>
<head>
<title>this is the title of your page</title>
</head>
<body>
This is the text that appears on the web page.
</body>
</html> That's not too scary, is it? To take a look at further examples of HTML try going to these pages, which serve as simple introductions to its mysteries: This is a good introductory guide to print off and work your way through.
There are many, many more tutorials and primers and reference guides online. However, not entirely necessary to learn HTML, although it is strongly recommended. You can choose to use WYSIWYG editors to build your webpage. WhizzyWhat, you cry? WYSIWYG stands for ' W hat Y ou S ee I s W hat Y ou G et ', and it simply means that you can build your webpage through a user-friendly interface that will build all the HTML in the background for you. There are many of these, and quite a few produce hideous code in the background.
One other problem with WYSIWYG programs is that they offer you the choice of using templates into which you can insert your text and pictures. This is tempting if you're a total novice, but think about it for a minute - there must be hundreds, if not thousands of people who've used these templates. Do you really want your page to look exactly the same as so many others? So it's perhaps best to avoid using their template options.
Two of the most popular WYSIWYG's are the Dream weaver package, which is extremely powerful, and the Homesite software, which switches easily between browser, WYSIWYG and HTML editing modes. We still recommend, however, that if you use one of these you nonetheless have a look at the raw HTML before putting your page live, and remove any unnecessary tags that the editor may have inserted - it'll make your page load that tiny bit quicker.
As with any skill the best and simplest way is to try, try and try again. Keep playing with things, breaking them, fixing them, see what works and what doesn't. Practice really does make perfect and we guarantee you'll be surprised by how easy it is to pick up and how quickly you'll be building simple pages
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